


Late at Night

by caffeine-vaccine (HashtagLEH)



Series: Little Snippets [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: APSHDS, AU of AU, Age Play, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky has it, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Non-Sexual Age Play, Past Abuse, Past Brainwashing, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, Villain Tony Stark, Wetting, alexander pierce should have died slower, except not really, good guy Brock Rumlow, good guy Jack Rollins, honestly if you're familiar with apshds you should be familiar with all the warning tags, little Bucky Barnes, notes at the end, villain iron man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 12:27:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20657243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/caffeine-vaccine
Summary: When Brock and Jack find out about the Winter Soldier's little side, rather than allowing him to go back to Pierce they decide to go on the run so he doesn't have to be abused anymore. Somewhere along the way, Tony Stark found out about it and is part of the Bucky Barnes Protection Squad.But Bucky still has a hard go of it, and sometimes he just needs a daddy. A good one, though. So that they can all live as a happy family.AU of Lauralot's APSHDS series.





	Late at Night

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Do Not Put in the Icebox](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2341415) by [Lauralot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lauralot/pseuds/Lauralot). 

> This is a fic that has been sitting in progress for much too long on my computer. I may come back to it, but since I'm not sure I'm just posting it as finished now. I also have notes at the end for my ideas how I wanted this fic to go.

_“Hey, Soldier. What’s wrong?”_

_“’M not supposed to be here.”_

_“’M not the Soldier.”_

_“You can’t give guns to little kids! Don’t be an idiot.”_

_“I am **great **with kids.”_

_“I miss Daddy.”_

_“I wish you were my Daddy.”_

_“…**not **what I signed on for.”_

_“You’re seriously considering this?!”_

_“Everyone has their doubts when working for Hydra.”_

_“This will be signing our own death sentence.”_

_“Better dead than standing by and **knowing **every time…”_

_“Hey, kid! You wanna go on an adventure?”_

***

Tony is pretty sure he's going to die. Like, 79% sure. Those aren't really good odds, are they?

He's faced danger before, of course. As a Stark, he breathed danger growing up and called it science. He'd had open heart surgery in a hot Afghani cave and survived to tell about it. He was pretty used to manning a half ton gold-titanium alloy suit – while getting shot at, too. Danger was pretty normal to him.

And yet...he felt most often like he was facing certain death when he was facing an angry Pepper Potts.

Which he was doing now.

The thing was, Pepper didn't lose her head and ramble like _he_ did when she got angry. Her death glare was enough to whip anyone on the receiving end of it into shape. No one messed with Pepper and lived to tell about it. Not without pleading for forgiveness and making serious reparations.

However, because she was scary quiet, he frequently had a very hard time figuring out what he needed to fix to make her happy. And, as he tried wracking his brain for something he might have forgotten or said or _not_ said, he couldn't think of anything that would warrant the look on Pepper's face. And he had a sneaking suspicion that she knew he didn't know.

"Tony," she finally said in clear irritation. "I need you to stop worrying about what you've done wrong and worry about signing the growing stack of forms on your desk. The board is impatient and holding another meeting on Friday. You _have_ to be at this one, understand?"

"On an intellectual level, yes," Tony replied, fiddling with some sort of mind puzzle as he spoke. "Board's got their panties in a twist over Apple's newest product release and how it compares to SI. This is old hat. I don't know why I need to actually be there..." He stopped himself at the look she shot him, and quickly retraced his words – "...but I will definitely make the time for it. 11 am, you said?"

"Yes, Tony," Pepper confirmed. "And remember to get dressed this time. We don't need to give them more ammo."

"Done, in my calendar, reminder and all," Tony hummed, putting his hands behind his back and rocking on his heels. "Now, what can I do to make it up to you?"

"Make _what_ up to me, Tony?" Pepper questioned, as though she wasn't the only one who knew.

"Everything, _ever_," Tony responded after a moment. There was really no way to get out of this one – Pepper was _really_ mad, if she still wasn't helping to spell it out for him. The best course of action now was to just accept censure and apologize before moving on as normal.

Pepper sighed in equal parts annoyance and resignation. "I can handle you being branded a supervillain, Tony..."

"And Iron Man _is_ super," Tony bragged.

"_However_" – Pepper glared at the interruption, and Tony mimed zipping his lips to show that he was paying her his complete and undivided attention – "you do not make my job any easier when Iron Man interrupts important meetings across the globe with explosions and the occasional diatribe next door to the building I am _in_.”

"It wasn't in the _same_ building!" Tony protested, finally understanding what she was talking about and throwing his hands up in a cross between defense and surrender.

"No, but our investors could see it happening from across the street!" Pepper exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "And who cares about SI business when Iron Man is blasting into and through the skyscraper they see every day? You can do whatever you feel like doing to them – revenge, or justice, or whatever else you want to call it, but kindly _refrain_ from doing it when I am attempting to keep our investors happy!"

"You're right, Pep – I'm sorry," Tony said the magic words in surrender. "Before I blow up things, I will double check that you're not even in the _country_, all right? If it's in the US, I'll check it's not in the same state. Sound good?"

Pepper sighed, ire appeased. "All right, Tony, thank you," she accepted. "Now sign those papers before you go home, and we'll consider this settled."

Tony whitened, remembering at least a ream's worth sitting on his desk last time he saw it – six days ago. He knew it accumulated quickly, too.

"How much of the stack do I have to go through?" He asked, somewhat desperately.

Pepper smiled sweetly at him. "All of it."

***

Tony groaned, stretching out his back to work out the kinks from sitting at his desk for so long. Rubbing the back of his neck, he glanced outside to see the sky mostly dark, only a thin line of purple on the horizon. Now, rather than sunlight, New York City was lit up with its own lights. The clock on the wall showed it to be just past six. The days were getting longer as spring approached, thankfully. Tony didn't care for the cold mugginess of wintertime.

Neatly stacking the signed forms and crossed through forms in separate piles, he left them on his desk for Pepper to find when she came in the next morning. He was pretty proud of himself for finishing them before the night was completely gone – though irritated with some members of the board trying to sneak things past his approval. Tony snorted. No _way_ was he putting his signature on something he didn't agree with. He needed to actually know _what_ he was agreeing to before putting his label on it, but some people just never learned.

"J, let Happy know I'm on my way down," Tony said, locking his office behind him.

"Mr. Hogan says that he is waiting in the garage with the engine running as we speak."

"Fantastic," Tony expressed, stepping onto the elevator. He winced at the sound of Bach playing through the speakers. "J, I'm in the mood for some Iron Maiden. Your thoughts?"

Jarvis obediently began to play "Wasted Years" through the elevator's speakers, even as he commented, "Miss Potts will not be happy with your selection, Sir."

"I think she'll forgive me when she sees I actually did what she said."

"If you say so, Sir." The doors opened, showing Happy waiting in a sleek black car.

"I _do_ say so," Tony snarked, walking to the car and waiting as Happy insisted on opening the door for him before he climbed in.

"How are you doing today, Hap?" Tony said as they started driving away.

"Pretty good, Boss," Happy responded, cheerful as ever. "Your suit's in the trunk. Same place as normal?"

"You know me," Tony said with a grin, settling back in his seat.

Twenty minutes later, Tony stepped out of the car without Happy's assistance this time, going to the already opened trunk and pulling the red metal case from it. Within seconds, the red and gold metal had assembled itself around him and the eyeholes lit up with the same blue glow as the arc reactor in his chest.

"See you tomorrow," he saluted his loyal driver, before he flew up into the sky, and away from New York.

***

"Uncle Tony!"

The shout came as soon as he opened the door, and a moment later, a little boy's body crashed into his, arms wrapping around him in a tight hug. Normally, as he was in the suit, he would have been able to keep his balance, but he was so surprised at the sudden attack that he was forced to move one foot behind him to keep his balance and remain upright.

"Hey, kiddo," Tony said, returning the hug quickly lest Bucky think himself unwanted. He snapped the faceplate up on his helmet. "I thought you'd be in bed by now."

"We were _trying_," a voice said dryly from the entry to the hallway. Tony looked up to see Brock, leaning against the corner, arms folded and eyebrows raised sardonically. "But _someone_ decided not to tell us he'd be back later than normal – by _two hours_ – and Winter was all set to go on a hunt for his most accident-prone Uncle. We've been reading him fairy tales for the past hour to try and make him sleepy."

Bucky had an expression that Tony knew all too well. Wide, slightly watery eyes (like he was trying to hold back tears), gnawing on his lip, hands at his sides in loose fits. He was expecting Tony to be disappointed, or upset, or angry – or all of the above – and was anticipating punishment. No matter what any of them did or how they tried proving to him that he was safe now, he could never shake the fear that he was going to be hurt for doing something he perceived as wrong.

Before he could begin to apologize though, Tony gave him another hug and said, "Well, I'm glad I get to see you today, too! Uncle Brock and Uncle Jack just don't tell their stories right. Come on, I can come read to you."

Bucky was instantly cheered, and as he ran off back to his room to pick out a story, Tony stepped out of his armor, allowing it to fold back into its suitcase and setting it beside the door.

"Any problems?" Brock questioned quietly as Tony came closer.

"No," Tony sighed. "Pepper just had me signing forms; I lost track of time and didn't think to call. Is Winter all right?"

Brock scowled. "As fine as he _can_ be, thinking his uncle bit the dust. Not as bad as it could have been, but there's no permanent damage this time. Just give us a fucking call next time, or hell – have Jarvis do it. We don't need to be inviting the Soldier out to play when he's not needed.”

“Point,” Tony acceded with an incline of his head. “He have any more breakdowns today?”

“Three,” Brock responded, and Tony cursed. It had been a while since Bucky had had so many breakdowns in one day. “Woke up from another nightmare about Pierce and couldn't stop apologizing and trying to say sorry ‘the right way’. Few hours later, something in a commercial set him off and he started remembering the forties again. Couldn't really make sense of it. He didn't remember later, anyway. Later he started crying how he wanted his Daddy again.”

Tony winced. That one was definitely the most common one. Bucky cried about wanting his Daddy just about every day. Six and a half years hadn't changed that.

“Uncle Tony!” Bucky called, interrupting his thoughts.

“Coming, kiddo!” Tony called back immediately, and then looked back to Brock. “Nothing new, but something is buzzing at SHIELD. I haven't had the time to check it out completely, but I have Jarvis on it.”

“No news is _not_ good news,” Brock postulated.

“That's why I have Jarvis on it,” Tony sighed. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go read some fairy tales to my favorite nephew.”

***

Bucky awoke with a gasp and a choked sob, uncertain where he was and feeling very lonely. The special pull-up around his hips was wet and uncomfortable, but at least his sheets were dry.

He hovered for a moment in his mind, uncertain whether he'd come back online as child or adult, before he finally forced himself to be big. It wasn't often that he could control it, but he was grateful that he could today. It seemed like he spent all his time being five, and he just wanted to stop being a burden and be _big_.

It didn't stop the tears from coming, though – he tended to cry whether he was little _or_ big. The only time he didn't was when he was the Soldier. And he was pretty sure that didn't count, seeing as the Soldier had very little emotion as it was.

After a minute or two, he pulled himself together, forcing himself to stop crying so he could go change and throw his bedding in the wash. There may not be piss in it, but it was still damp with sour-smelling sweat from when he’d twisted about in the midst of his nightmare. It was when he'd finished and was walking back down the hallway that he met Tony.

"Hey, Buck," Tony greeted, guessing who it was from his posture. "Want some coffee?" He carried an empty mug in his hand, so Bucky guessed he was on his way to the kitchen to get a refill.

“Working tonight?” Bucky asked, not directly answering Tony’s offer, but following him into the kitchen.

“Always,” Tony grinned, but it seemed tired as he began to get the coffee maker going. Bucky noted absently that it was almost 3:30 in the morning, based on the clock on the microwave.

“Done anything exciting this week?” Tony pulled Bucky’s focus back to him.

“You haven't heard it all from Brock and Jack?” Bucky raised a skeptical brow.

“Nope,” Tony denied, and he was pretty sure he believed him. It wasn't in Tony's nature to lie to him.

“They went to bed while I was reading to you,” Tony continued. “They were pretty wiped.”

Bucky immediately felt ashamed. “I'm sorry,” he muttered guiltily. “They don't need to cater to the kid, I've tried...”

“Hey, _stop_ that,” Tony chided, bumping his shoulder against Bucky's metal one, not disgusted at all at the cool hardness. Somehow the action reassured Bucky – the casual contact, one that equals would share. Not a billionaire genius and the fucked-up mind of a sometimes-five-year-old.

“Brock and Jack care about you. You know that,” Tony continued. “And maybe they didn't really know what they were getting into when they got you away from Pierce,” – a stabbing pain went through him just like every other time he heard the name – “But they haven't left you behind so far, have they? After six years, they're used to this. They want to help you, so let them. And stop feeling guilty for things you can't control.”

“You should give motivational speeches,” Bucky said sarcastically, turning to pull a mug from the cupboard.

“Psh,” Tony scoffed. “Diplomacy has never been my strong point – this isn't news.”

“I saw on TV that you blew up that building in Hong Kong,” Bucky mentioned <strike>accusingly</strike>, voice even as he passed his mug over to Tony. “I didn’t know beforehand that you were going to target that one.”

Tony shrugged, taking the mug from Bucky’s hand and pouring some coffee from the carafe into it. “Heard some chatter on that side of the globe,” he explained, passing the mug back to Bucky and picking up his own. “Figured I’d catch it while it was hot. The PAP are still counting the bodies.” He cut himself off before he could go into further detail, taking a sip of his coffee. “You don’t need to hear about that, though. How have things been going with you? You finish your painting yet?”

Bucky gave the other man an irritated look. “I’m not gonna collapse helplessly because you talk about killing people who are Hydra,” he complained, though he knew deep inside that Tony may have been right to worry and censor himself, because once upon a time that had not been true. Some days, he still felt guilty about supporting the killing of Hydra operatives, because he knew how much his Daddy would be _so mad _if he knew. <strike>Sometimes he thought about escaping and going back to Daddy, begging for forgiveness on his knees and promising not to betray Hydra or his Daddy ever again.</strike>

He shook himself from those thoughts though, because he was tired of being a child, of crying all the time, of relying on Tony, Brock, and Jack for basic things a six year old could do. And seeing things like this, when he was big, just drove home the fact that he was weak and pathetic. The others probably wished they’d never met him.

He hated it.

“In any case, four am is not the time to talk about it,” Tony said easily in response to Bucky’s frustrated complaint.

Sometimes, Bucky marveled at the billionaire’s patience with him, at not rising to the bait so easily put out there. He had never lost his temper with Bucky – even Brock and Jack had, in the beginning, a couple of times that Bucky could only fuzzily remember. (His brain had still been learning how to store memories after not being wiped and frozen constantly, or Bucky was pretty sure he would remember those times better when the two ex-Hydra agents were still learning and figuring out how to deal with him.) But Tony always treated him with a patience and fortitude that most of the world didn’t think him capable of, if the news and the internet was anything to go by. And Bucky _knew _that he didn’t deserve it.

Now, though, Bucky wasn’t thinking about Tony’s patience; he was thinking about his bullheadedness and refusal to talk about things he didn’t want to when he set his mind to it. He knew that Tony wasn’t going to be talking about the Hong Kong situation any more tonight – not now, maybe not ever. It was frustrating, but he <strike>still had enough training stuck in his brain that he</strike> didn’t say anything else to try and change Tony’s mind.

(Jack said that this passiveness was not healthy, but Brock always told him to just shut up and be grateful for it while he could, because he was somehow under the impression that this would not last forever. Bucky was uncertain whose side he favored more in this argument, so he always left the room when they started talking about it.)

“Come on,” Tony <strike>instructed</strike> invited, motioning with his head toward the living room. “Let’s go watch some mindless infomercials.”

Bucky obeyed, but in the back of his mind, the little boy he sometimes was cried for his Daddy. Sometimes he wished he was back there, because while it <strike>may have been</strike> was horrible and painful most of the time, at least he had his Daddy there.

He wished his Daddy was nice. Then the others would let him live with them too, and they could all be a happy family.

But if his Daddy had been nice, they wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with, so Bucky tries to push it out of his mind and just watch TV with Uncle Tony.

***

The room smelled stale, old. But at the same time – like a fresh layer of paint to cover the age.

A game was playing on the radio. Baseball.

The Dodgers were playing.

The man on the bed shifted. The quilt underneath him crinkled a bit. He scrunched his eyebrows – confusion.

He was cold.

Slowly, Steve Rogers opened his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm mostly undecided how and when Tony found out about Bucky and what's going on, but I kind of imagine it was around the time SHIELD contacted him because they were suspicious of Iron Man, and maybe he found out that way. I don't know - that part's not important.
> 
> But, because Brock and Jack are separate - intentionally so - from being Bucky's daddy, I think that Bucky's recovery that we see in Lauralot's series would be slowed down tremendously. In their series, Steve very quickly became Bucky's daddy after Bucky came back, and I think that safe space for Bucky to be himself and allow himself to be little is what helped with Bucky being more functional, you know? But in this fic, without that person to call daddy, and knowing that the three of them are completely uninterested in being that "daddy" figure, we see that Bucky really hasn't changed much at all. 
> 
> But, that bit at the end with Steve waking up? Well, I imagine that SHIELD is going to send him after the villainous Iron Man, and through a comedy of errors Steve ends up discovering Bucky and what's going on with him. (Of course there would initially be distrust toward Tony, Brock, and Jack, but I think he would realize the error of his ways fairly quickly.) Then after that they end up taking down SHIELD, but after that would be when Tony reveals himself as Iron Man, and some issues are cleared up. This all happens before Avengers, so he wouldn't have met Clint or Natasha or Bruce or Thor yet. But with the occurrences of Loki and the Chitauri, I imagine Brock and/or Jack join in on that (and Tony, of course), and so the public is a lot less leery of the three and charges against them end up wiped away with nothing more than a slap on the wrists (maybe something like they work with the other Avengers on an as-needed basis?).
> 
> So, Bucky starts living in the Tower with everyone else and one time he accidentally calls Steve "Daddy" and Steve freaks out because by now he knows what it means but after a whole lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication and then someone knocks their heads together so that they WILL communicate (I'm imagining Uncle Brock chewing Steve out, personally) then Steve accepts his place as he does in the series. And then my fic would end there, because I imagine Bucky's recovery would be much the same as it is in Lauralot's series.
> 
> So, yeah. There's my idea. Feel free to write it, haha.
> 
> Hope you guys liked it!


End file.
